Mumbai/New Delhi, September 11: The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL)—the joint venture firm modernising the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport—has said it has found a variation of as much as 129 acres between what the government said was encroached land at the time of the agreement and the ground situation once the JV took over.

It has claimed that while the Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) estimated the total encroached land at the airport to be 147 acres, the company discovered that 276 acres was under encroachment. While maintaining that there is no delay in the project, MIAL is driving home the discrepancy trying to explain why modernising Mumbai airport is turning out to be “the toughest infrastructure project in India”.

“When we came to the project, we didn’t even know where the airport boundary was. When we bid for the airport, we were allowed to visit the airport only twice, and half of those days were spent in conference rooms. We knew there were problems, but did not expect the extent. There was no way we could have done our own survey of the airport,” MIAL Managing Director G V Sanjay Reddy said. “There is no delay in the project. If we delay, it’s our fault,” he added.

Having an operational area over 1,085 acres, Mumbai airport only has 59 acres of vacant land that can be used for development. While 34 acres is under litigation, around 200 acres house various government colonies and another 293 acres are leased out. Comparisons with Delhi airport modernisation growing by the day, MIAL is trying to put forward a clearer picture on the constraints Mumbai faces and Delhi does not.

The late realisation on the extreme land crunch has already forced the JV to modify its original masterplan. “Whatever we submitted in the original masterplan was based on limited knowledge. We have to build a new airport on top of the existing airport,” Reddy said.

MIAL is now pinning its hope on securing the Government’s nod on getting around 60 acres of land part of the “carved out assets” before the deal. MIAL estimates suggest that three lakh people inhabit around 65,000 hutments on the 276 acres of encroached land at the airport. It has also worked out that roughly 176 acres of land would be required for rehabilitating the slums. With in situ rehabilitation already ruled out for want of land, MIAL has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from private developers. Five players have responded to the EoI and bids are currently under evaluation. Under the arrangement, the developer would have bring in land, bear the cost of building the tenements and pay the requisite charges to the Government. In return, the developer would get the money through Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and commercial rights at the airport.